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Libricar
"Your mistake was not simply that you strayed from the light of the Blessed Throne or were derelict in your duties, nor that you consorted with heretics and drank deep of the forbidden. Nor was it even your arrogance that you were strong enough to remain pure. No, your most grievous error was in believing that you could do these things un-seen and un-judged!” –Inquisitor Claudia Tarshek, from the Excommunication of the Witch Hunter Mokartus A relatively newly fanned flame of radicalism founded from an unexpected Calixian source, Libricaranism is a relative newcomer to the clash of Inquisitorial ideology and doctrine and one that earns its fanatical counter-reformers an often outcast status in the Holy Ordos. An extremist outgrowth of the puritan Amalathians, for the Libricar it is not enough to preserve the institutions of the Imperium, but also necessary to ensure that those who rule and maintain them are ceaselessly watched, mercilessly judged, and made pure by bloodshed. To a follower of the Libricar doctrine the sacred pattern of the Imperium as divinely ordained by the mind of the God Emperor, has become weakened from within by petty political corruption, factional strife, and beset by arrogant ideology, not least of all within the Holy Ordos itself. Above all, they despise those proponents of change who presume to second guess the will of the divine or betray their Emperor-given power and privilege for petty personal vice. For the Libricar, true order must be restored and tradition venerated and the path to this sacred goal clear---and if they must take it into their own hands and become judge, jury, and executioner in order to show the way, then so be it. The Red Scourge of Sibellus The Libricar doctrine first gained a solid foothold in the Calixian Conclave in 609.M41 during the restoration of the power and prestige of the Lucid Court remembered by Calixian scholars as the Sult Ascendancy. During this time and with the backing of the Calixian Inquisition, the newly inaugurated Lord Sector Larhanus Sult (somewhat ironically entitled “The Great Conciliator” by his biographers) did much to pull back executive authority to his office as well as presiding over a massive expansion of the military forces under the Lord Sector’s direct control. This resurgence of power in the seat of the Lord Calixis was in no small part a reaction to a dangerous corrosion of the Calixis Sector’s governance and the growing and often malign influences of a burgeoning Combine Commercia and the petty nobility. A rot many traced back first to the horrors of the Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness’ corruption of the Lucid Court nearly two centuries before and the shadow war that ended it. Sult’s closest ally in the Holy Ordos, and a growing power in the Conclave at the time was Inquisitor Drakos Monke, once an Acolyte of Tarshek herself and a staunch advocate of the then newborn Libricar doctrine. At Sult’s invitation, Monke was charged with overseeing aggressive reforms to the governance of Hive Sibellus, a task he took to with bloody gusto worthy of the Crassan Purge in which as a young man he had taken part, and soon gained Sult’s respect and favor, rapidly earning himself the appellation of the ‘Red Scourge.’ As Sult’s star rose so did Monke’s, despite growing accusations from his peers that he had become too close to the personal clique of the Lord Sector and had lost his objectivity. For several decades Monke remained a potent force within the Conclave Calixis and was grudgingly raised to the title of Lord Inquisitor, based in no small part on Sult’s backing. Monke further cemented his powerbase by building up an inner circle of subordinate Inquisitors, most of which shared his doctrine to some extent, although he counted far more enemies than friends in the Conclave, particularly in the Ordo Malleus and the Tyrantine Cabal of who he seemed to carry a deep seated disdain and distrust. When Monke died in 734.M41 (apparently of natural causes), his power and influence had long since waned as Sult himself gave way to his kinsman Marius Hax, and those who had long born grudges against Monke and his allies, (rumors of secret murder-cells used against fellow Inquisitor’s operations by them had long been rife) were quick to make good on their simmering enmity. Those who did not immediately desert Monke’s old inner circle and its successors quickly found themselves ostracized in the Conclave or the brunt of revenge attacks, damaging intrigues or more formal Inquisitorial scrutiny. At one particularly turbulent Grand Conclave Synod, the Libricaran doctrine and Monke’s personal record was mercilessly attacked by speaker after speaker with the tacit backing of none other than Lord Inquisitor Caidin himself. The implication and result could not be in doubt; the Libricar and their doctrine were no longer welcome among the mainstream of the Calixian Conclave and those few Inquisitors that bitterly remained attached to its calling soon found themselves relegated to defacto status as outsiders, viewed with deep suspicion by their peers. Despite this reversal of fortune, the Libricar’s presence in the Calixis sector did not end. It was merely forced underground, its survival aided by the remnants of Monke’s well-hidden private network and web of contacts and those that remain loyal to the doctrine are more militant than ever in their convictions. 'Current Conspiracies' “You have strayed and been found wanting.” –Libricaran pronouncement of death After suffering the nadir of their influence in the Calixis sector some decades ago, the small but fanatical Libricar presence in the Conclave Calixis has been slowly and carefully plotting its return and cautiously expanding reach. Until recently no more than a handful of disparate outcasts who have either hung on bitterly after the harrowing of the late Lord Inquisitor Monke’s former allies or come to the doctrine on their own. However, while few in number, The Libricar are starting to organize and meet in secret once more to affirm their accords. This quiet resurgence is in no small part due to a growing perception by some Inquisitors (particularly independents of an Amalathian mindset) that the Calixian Conclave has become ever more divided and plagued by schism and infighting over recent years, while the threats to the sector have only multiplied and grown. Although by no means a coherent movement yet, nor with any great overarching plan, these new Libricar are notably distinct from their forbears in the caution they take in how loudly they profess their cause and their immediate willingness to circumvent Inquisitorial procedure and authority to enact their judgments. The Baraspine Project Although the Calixian Libricar have no true leader as of yet, the front runner for the role is an up-and-coming member of the Ordo Hereticus called Constantos Trevelyan, a former loyal servant of the noted Spectarian Inquisitor Globus Vaarak (himself one of the sector’s most respected Amalathians). Trevelyan came to prominence during the Tranch War where he garnered notice for his single minded pursuit of the scattering witches and mutant rebels of the Pale Throng. It was in fact his experience with the corruption on Tranch that swung him to the Libricar cause, although this is a fact he has kept largely hidden. Charismatic and meticulous, Trevelyan has been in recent years been given the rank of Planetia Inquisitor for the minor hive world of Baraspine after destroying a Pale Throng uprising there and executing the infamous malefic sorcerer who sponsored it. Since taking up his post, he has quietly and covertly begun the project of building up a power base there and converting a significant percentage of Baraspine’s Conclavian Council to his favored doctrine. His plan is slowly progressing, and through a diligent mix of overt and fully sanctioned Inquisitorial vigilance and secret ‘star chamber justice’ administered by a Moritat assassin sub-cult he has nurtured there, the “Baraspine Project” is bearing fruit. The Kaede Sanction One of the first actions of the newly allied Calixian Libricar has been to mark the flamboyant Inquisitor Vownus Kaede for death. Although nominally a puritan, Kaede’s eccentricities, cavalier attitude to external authorities, and repeated flouting of his fellow Inquisitors when it comes to spiriting young psykers away for service, not to mention his public and repeated criticism of the Libricar cause have all served sign his execution warrant as far as they are concerned. He is the epitome of a ‘Rogue Agent’ in the Libricars’ eyes, wrongly tolerated by his fellow Inquisitors. Rather than come after him publicly and denounce him in conclave as they might have once done, instead the Libricar have opted to slowly pick apart his organization and leave him vulnerable for a final death stroke. As a result several Libricar sympathizers have already moved against him and begun the task of infiltrating Kaede’s support network and tracking his movements. In recent months one of his notoriously militant Acolyte bands was drawn out and ambushed while investigating a Heretek cult in the Sinophian hinterlands. They were slaughtered to a man, and the hot-blooded Kaede has vowed to avenge their deaths---little realizing the true nature of the culprits responsible or the trap being laid for him. Nor is his the only name on the Libricar’s death list.